“We're
gonna hunt you down like a mad dog hound… We're all through talking and
a messing around And now it's time to rock and roll…” --Charlie Daniels
“This Ain’t No Rag It’s a Flag”

How
short is the national memory? Shorter than (fill in the blank)....

Most
of us remember where we were and how we first learned of the epic tragedy
of 9/11…and how we felt. There was a brief (all too brief) period when
Americans were living Charlie Daniels lyrics, "And we'll all stick together,
you can take that to the bank...yeah, the cowboys and the hippies and
the rednecks and the yanks...."

It was
an awful, wonderful, horrific, unifying, albeit fleeting moment, in our
culture.

We've
come a long way from 'Lets roll!' to 'Lets run and hide and pull the covers
up over our heads.'

A lot
has been and will be written about 9/11.

It is
beyond fascinating that only five years later, we are where we are.

Five years ago,
EVERYone with an IQ larger than his or her shoe size was united.

EVERYone was
angry, outraged, scared and wanted payback.

The routine acrimonious
lines of division between left and right, democrats and republicans,
liberal and conservative collapsed faster than the twin towers.

Madmen
bastardizing a religion to rationalize an atrocity attacked us.

It didn’t
take all that long for petty domestic and partisan feuds to overshadow
and overwhelm the national focus. By the time all those post-9/11 flags
and red/white/blue streamers had faded or wore out, partisan politics
joyously capitulated national unity faster than the Vichy French embracing
Hitler.

We stand
on the brink of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and the anti-war,
resurrected Chamberlain appeasers need a good slap upside the head.

Rather
than focus on petty partisan b.s., blame gaming, and ad nauseum ‘what
if’ing, we, as a nation, desperately need resolved statesmen to bludgeon
smarmy politicians into unity and a decisive action plan.

Sure
mistakes were made…LOTS of mistakes…before, during and after 9/11. There
is abundant blame to go around…but picking at scabs is counterproductive
AND count intuitive.

We need
to learn from the mistakes, correct them, not repeat them, and NOT cover
them up with C.Y.A. obfuscation. Past sins are just that…PAST.

Meanwhile,
the enemy remains united and committed in their resolve. Too bad we’re
distracted because the enemy is not.

The
‘bad guys’ still want to you kill you. They want to destroy our country,
our culture, and our way of life.

By the
way…the ‘bad guys’ are ecstatic about the division and acrimony they see
in the U.S.A…it serves their objectives.

When Charlie Daniels
sang, “Our people stand proud The American crowd is faithful, loyal
and tough We're good as the best and better than the rest” he was
right…THEN…we were ‘faithful, loyal and tough’. However, we have allowed
our clan rivalries and ‘Jack spit’ politics to overshadow our national
interests…and in so doing we have both weakened our own resolve and emboldened
the enemy.

For
five years we have been told, and told, and told, again and again, that
eventually, inevitably, despite our best efforts to prevent it, the statistical
probability of terrorists hitting us again, in a big, bad way, is for
sure.

We don’t
know when, or where, or how, but it WILL happen.

During
WWII we spent from 5.8% to 37.19% of our federal budget on Defense. [Read]

The
Heritage
Foundation notes that “With the stakes no less than survival of the
free world, leadership by the United States is essential to winning the
"Long War" now raging against the forces of Islamic fascism….this means
a long-term U.S. commitment to making the necessary resources available
to the military.”

And
it has NOT happened. Why? Because politics has trumped national security,
and common sense.

Both
“stay the course” and “bring the troops home” are myopic, pandering, and
flat wrong.

Hanson
says, General George Patton had two phrases that he used like breath.
The first, from Danton, was: “Audacity, always audacity, still more audacity.”
The second was a line from Kipling,“the unforgiving minute,” which referred
to certain times in war when the collective will of a people or an army
can without warning collapse—at least for critical moments that must be
capitalized on.

"Geoff Metcalf is a nationally syndicated radio
talk show host for TALK AMERICA and a veteran media performer. He has
had an eclectic professional background covering a wide spectrum of radio,
television, magazine, and newspapers. A former Green Beret and retired
Army officer he is in great demand as a speaker. Visit Geoff's